Quiet Child
by Gutt
Summary: He doesn't want any more bruises. Gods, no more scrapes and cuts, please. He barely escaped with his life, he can't lose it now.


**A/N: **Tumblr user Shotaguros (a NSFW blog, you've been warned) said that they wanted a mute!Link zippin 'round trying to save the day without having the slightest clue of what he's doing because of being coddled by the Deku Tree all his life. So, there's vomit and patheticness ahead.  
**Warnings: **Vomit, mentions of violence.  
**Writing Music: **Chopin - Nocturne in E flat Major, Piano Solo

* * *

As the rain pours down harder, Link can't help but shiver in the cold. He squirms, back pressing against loose, damp earth. In his small, soft, fleshy palms are berries. They're about the size of the nail on his little finger, bright red and smushed around the edges, bleeding away and smearing onto his hand. He thinks about how much more appetizing these would look in a steaming pie back home.

He holds his breath and puts one in his mouth.

It's tart, and has a bit of a bitter bite to it, but it is food, and Link is hungry enough for his stomach to groan and cramp. Smacking his lips and scrunching his nose, the boy sizes up the rest of the berries. He thinks about all the bugs that must have landed on it, and he feels a bit nauseous. Gross. With his thumb and forefinger, Link picks out two more berries, the roundest and most healthy looking of the bunch, and pops them into his mouth as well.

But it's just too tart. His gag reflex comes in. Link burps unattractively instead of spitting them up. Yet an unsettling rumble sounds from his stomach, not too different from his hunger-noises, but just distinct enough for Link to know there's something very wrong. His hands twitch and he begins to sweat. It occurs to him that maybe he shouldn't be eating just anything that he finds in the woods.

Link rolls the berries off his hand, outside his small hole in the ground. He makes a mental note, too. No more bright red berries.

Link sniffles, clutching his stomach, growing more and more painful by the second.

A loud, strangled groan erupts from the boy's mouth. His throat feels tight, and his stomach tighter. Hot, angry pain shoots from his stomach, up his chest, up his throat. Crap!

He scrambles from his sitting position onto his hands and knees, crawling out the opening of the hole into the rain. And he pukes. Warm, acidic flavor bursts from his esophagus onto his tongue, draining out of his mouth. It hits the ground with a wet splash. The pool of vomit is stained bright red, and Link is horrified- it's his blood!

Link pukes again. He's getting very tired of this.

But the rain dithers the pool of puke, turning it a milky pink, and it clicks in his brain that it was those berries. Not blood. He can't help but feel relieved, but also humiliated. Idiot boy. He should know better.

He misses the Great Deku Tree...

Rain pounds hard on his hair, soaking his clothes. A loud groan echoes past the deafening rain. Link first assumes it's his stomach again, but soon sees something in the corners of his eyes. Something has moved in the woods. In the dim light, Link spots it; one of the monsters chasing him earlier this day. Scrambling, the blonde crawls back into his ditch in the ground, and prays the roots of the tree above the hole will protect him. He presses his back as far as it will go against the dirt. Breathing hard. Sweating. Drying vomit is on his lips.

The lizafos creeps along the lines of the trees, tongue sweeping out to taste the air as it searches. Link thanks the Gods that it's raining. The lizalfos practically shivers, and Link squeezes his eyes shut, then wills it to go away.

Just go away. Just go away. Please just go away. He doesn't want any more bruises. Gods, no more scrapes and cuts, please. He barely escaped with his life, he can't lose it now.

Link thinks that maybe the Great Deku Tree should have chosen someone else. He isn't cut out for this. With his eyes still squeezed shut, Link trembles with fear and cold. He feels like he's too far into this now to go back. He feels like a fraud. A lie. He's so scared. All he can do is sit in the damp dirt and hope that when he opens his eyes, the monster will be gone.

His eyelids flutter open, wet with tears. He breathes a sigh of exhausted relief to find the lizalfos isn't within his line of sight anymore. Link feels tired. His bones hurt, and there's a deep cut on his arm. It stings, his stomach is cramping with hunger and rejection of poison, his eyelids are heavy, he's sweating, and he just wants to go to sleep.

He dreams of being in his warm bed, cloaked by a thick cottony blanket. All of his friends are there and they all tell him how brave he is for even venturing past the forest. He misses the Deku Tree. He misses Saria and the smells of Kokiri forest. He even misses Mido.

When Link wakes up, he cries quietly.


End file.
